What Happens to Your Soul if You Leave CT?
Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash
What happens to your soul if you leave Calvary Temple?
When you leave Calvary Temple, you are typically cut off from everyone around you. Your friends, your family, and anyone else in your support group. You are marooned in the world. An apostate with a giant "A" on your chest, indicating to the congregation the intensity of your sins. Based upon the intensity of the reaction of those we respect and the constant warning to "obey your leaders", we MUST ask the question, "Am I a Christian if I leave the church?"
To start, people leave the church for a variety of reasons. I will attempt to cover a couple:
Doctrinal Differences
Application Differences
Convenience
Mental Breakdowns
In each of these scenarios, we have found a consistent answer from the pastors: "Don't leave."
Doctrinal differences insult the wealth of knowledge that our pastors have been given. If you think you're hearing from God on your own then you are deceived.
Application differences implies that you know better for the flock than the pastors do. This is tantamount to questioning the man of God.
Convenience means that you value your own self-interest over God's interest. And God's interest will always be reflected in the multitude of counselors that you should have sought before making a decision. They will never counsel you to leave.
Mental breakdowns (spiritual exhaustion, fear of expectations) are a result of someone not being spiritually healthy. Spiritual health can only be improved through submission to the counsel of your leaders and being around the people of God.
So now the question….what if you decide against this unassailable logic? For that, we should probably check in with the Scriptures:
We are all sinners and none of us are righteous. (Romans 3:23, Romans 3: 10-12)
We are saved, not by works, but by the work of Jesus, who paid the price for all of our sins (Eph 2:8-9, Romans 5:12-21).
We should strive to not sin. (Romans 7)
If we sin, we receive forgiveness through belief in Jesus (John 3:16, John 1:9)
These are extremely simple principles that have become the tenants of our religion. Martin Luther was cast out of the Catholic Church for fighting against the doctrine of works. Yes, works should follow in our lives; but when we fall, grace still abounds. Jesus was hated by the Pharisees because he refused to make the "law" the most important thing. He cared more about a heart of worship to God (Mark 12:30-31). As we examined in a previous post, Jesus cared not of the traditions of men, because he believed that they made the Word of God of no effect.
The Gospel and the Church
Now, with this basis for our beliefs, we MUST keep the Gospel in mind when we speak about Scriptures from Paul that lay down more doctrine about a member and their interactions with the church. After all, Jesus spent WAY more time fighting the Pharisees about the unnecessary burdens they placed on their members than He ever did explaining to the disciples how to run a church. Jesus would have never wanted us to return to the "law" laid down by the Pharisees. Otherwise, instead of a religious revolution, Jesus would have just been transferring power from one group of men (Pharisees) to others (Disciples). Jesus is grace. He doesn't remove the law, he provides freedom from the law through grace.
Let's take the Scripture,
"Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."
The Scripture doesn't say, "Obey them, or else they will cast you out of their midst and invalidate your salvation." It doesn't say, "Obey them, or I will totally forget the grace that I've shown you." It implores you to obey, and provides justification--they watch for your souls. This is a counsel and an admonition, but it is absolutely NOT a condition of your salvation. That would be your faith in the work of Jesus. After all, is the sin of disobedience any different than the sin of anger, covetousness, or pride? Romans 3:23 puts us all in the guilty column already. Jesus' grace puts us in the innocent column.
What about the Old Testament Scriptures? The ground swallowed up those who questioned Moses authority. Many died when they rebelled against Moses and built the golden calf. The answer is simple. This was all before Jesus' work on the cross. Jesus did not do away with the law, but he invalidated the need to be in bondage to the law. Instead, we are free to pursue God with intense fervor, mess up, get up, and pursue him again.
Losing sight of our salvation removes the ability for us to discern falsehood from truth.
Extending This to Leaving the Church
Now, when you chose to join a church, you chose Star Scott and his ministry. You committed yourself to following his teaching, because you evaluated that his words were Biblical. They spoke to your heart, and you chose to believe. This is not a binding, life-long choice. No area in Scripture has EVER reproved a member for moving to a different local church. Instead the Scripture admonishes us to "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." [John 4:1]. It says that, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.By their fruit you will recognize them." [Matt 7:15-16] It is the members' job to determine whether a preacher is true or false. If they are of God, follow. If they are not, don't.
Any preacher that silences or discourages criticism is not operating according to Scripture. If a member chooses to leave the church because of personal questions about the pastor, that pastor should be concerned about his/her own representation of Scripture. After all, we are not Catholics, and the pastors are not popes. They are not infallible. They serve the church and serve God. They don't serve themselves. We serve God and the church, not the pastors.
Finally, if a member leaves because they do not agree with the pastor, that member might be wrong. They could be incredibly selfish and deceived. They might have lost touch with the voice of God. In that moment, God's grace is no less diminished. Jesus' work on the cross does not cease to be applicable. Instead, THIS is the reason that Jesus died. If we believe on him, then we are free to make a decision that might be wrong. Only he can set your ways right. [Proverbs 3:5-6].
If you wish to leave, leave. If someone around you leaves, learn about why they chose to leave. Make your decision in faith, not fear. Trust in the Lord, and follow his leadings.
